MellowDrama

Neena Singh, Senior VP, Head Branch Banking (North), HDFC Bank Right now, on her table, you will find Jack Welsh’s Winning, Amartya Sen’s Identity and Violence; Bimal Jalan’s The Indian Economy and Undercover Economist by Cim Harford. She is reading them all. Well, she is also reading Bachchan’s Madhushala and keeps sprinkling couplets during our conversation. Neena Singh is the only female regional head in the HDFC Bank. A senior vice president, she has been in banking past 28 years. We stole some time out of her busy schedule to give us an insight into banking. What is the current scenario in the banking sector? The kind of banking that is gaining ground is retail branch banking. Because it is broad-based as a customer gets all kinds of products under one roof, it is being largely preferred. HDFC Bank is among companies with the lowest attrition rate. How do you manage that?Our objective is to become a world class bank. That can happen only when our efficiency level is very high, we

The point which I was always had against a job with a BPO was that you have to compromise on your nationality. But the good news is that this is changing or rather has already changed. Now that outsourcing is being accepted as a global phenomenon, call centres have decided to drop the aliases and accented English has given way to global English. Says Akhtar of Vision Unlimited, “Handling sdervices for clients from different voice cultures is tough. Everyone understands the need for global English. With time American as well as the British clients have accepted the fact that India can provide quality services, so they do not mind speaking to an Indian.”“Now everyone knows that they are speaking to an Indian. Companies abroad realise that it is more important that the message reaches across to a client rather than stress on developing an accent,” feels Sanjay Bhartiya, who has been involved with training people for BPOs for past four years.And just what is global English? Says, Sona a tr

Aanandika Sood What are winners made of, what is the secret of their success and what sets them apart? We spoke to a few of those who had made it to the IIMs and to our surprise, they were very much human, like us but their determination, realisation of their own potential, their hard work and their faith in their abilities were what made them stand out.Kenny Heish who got a call from all six IIMs says, “I had this somewhere at the back of my mind but I got serious about it only a couple of years back.” Others also pitch in. Says Shipra who is doing engineering in Telecommunication and IT from UIET, “I always wanted to take up a managerial job. For me the biggest inspiration was that I did not want to end up as a programmer.” Kiranjyot, who is pursuing engineering in Electronics and Communication, had also known her mind forever. She says, “Look at the current market scenario. If I am able to combine my technological know-how with an MBA, it is a lethal combination.”Yagneshwar NV from

John Tulloch is professor of journalism and director of the School of Journalism, University of Lincoln. He is also involved with the Chevening Scholarship’s ‘The Young Indian Print Journalists Programme’. Aanandika Sood spoke to him about good journalism and all that is new and happening on his campus What is a good journalism school about? A good journalism school has to have a definite approach to journalism. It has to believe that journalism has more to do than just acquire a skill-set. Our philosophy at the School of Journalism, University of Lincoln is based somewhere in the middle of English and Humanities. We are interested in the links between journalism and writing. We are interested in finding out how has journalism changed, its future, its role in the world. A good journalist reaches out to the people. Good journalism embraces issues that people are concerned with. In our School the visiting faculty is a source of that. We have links with the BBC and the regional press and

I have been thinking of ways to save my articles with me and thought who not post them on my blog!!! I know it is not the greatest idea bu whatever...here goes the latest se pehle wala The North India Programmes Officer, Embassy of the USA, Clayton A. Bond will soon be taking over from Robin D Dallio, whose tenure in India as the First Secretary, Cultural Affairs, Embassy of the USA is coming to a close. Clayton says, “I went to the University of Hampton and studied Political Science and Environmental Studies. I was always interested in travelling all over the world and meeting new people, so I thought of taking up a career in the Foreign Service.”For Robin, who has been working as a diplomat for the US government for the past 12 years, the decision to join the Foreign Service just happened by chance. She says, “I always wanted to become a veterinarian. I was also very interested in learning languages. I joined the Peace Corps and on various assignments went to various countries as an

Yesterday night the real meaning of the phrase generation gap dawned on me. For the first time ever I accompanied Sachin to one of his bank meets. It had been organised in a disco and I did not know that. Now the prospect of an outing, that too in a disco should have sounded purrrffeeeeeeeeecccccct to me because the tv had broken down and all the guests who had been staying with us for quite some time now had left. The house would be unusually quite. So you would think that an evening out would have been a good change. But it happened so that I had a very usual day at work and was very hungry. All I wanted to do was go to an empty house make a basic dal-chawal kind of meal and play Ludo afterwards. The only good thing was that I would not have to cook and so I agreed to going with Sachin. When we reached the place we were guided to a disco. DISCO!! I should have been happy about the music and the lights and the works but it just managed to put me off in a big way and that is when I rea

The writer in me does not want to write news stories. It wants to write something to which I an lend 'my' touch. Now I have often been criticised for being obsessed with 'my' self but well, there are some things we can't do anything about. So, now when I look at people who are happy with getting a byline and their salary, the halo of my happiness gets disturbed. I can't fathom how can they be happy about their stories being brutally mangled and changed. The fault is not with the people at the desk. Ok may be to an extent. And that too of only those who think of themselves belonging to a superior breed. Reporters don not know how to write. Largely they are not concerned about writing a story. They simply get the facts and like a postman deliver them at the doorsteps of the subbies. I have been a sub and was very unhappy in the job because of my obsession with 'my'. While editing those copies I could not get myself to feel proud of the improvements I would

This is the ninth day of 2007, which is the 7th year in the 21st century and in the third millennium. It has been designated: International Polar Year International Heliophysical Year Most of 2007 overlaps with the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar. Children born under this year will be perfectionists, say Chinese astrologers. anyhow this blog was not to be about astrology and 2007 as such. It was just to be a top angle view of how have these 9 days been for me. The onset of the year brought lot of phlegm and cough in its wake, so much so that I would be breathless for a while- a while that became longer than it actually was. Well in any case Subu's timely intervention with a glass of lukewarm water and salt, my gargles and Sachin's insistence about steam inhalation saved my life. mum was here and that was the best thing to have happened, that too as the year started. Then the next remarkable thing to have happened in these nine days is cricket. not the keeda that rubs i

happiness he said was not subjective. I did not really understand and then he said,"Its like being in love. You just know when you are in love. You need not be told or reminded about it. You can just feel it. You just know it." anybody who has ever fallen in love would understand it or like me, anybody has been loved deeply can understand it. being loved is more basic need. thats the way we humans are. selfish. i dnt knw why all the time i was with him i kept smiling from ear to ear. nitin bhaiya's aura must have something to do with it. his voice, his presence, the way he would stop in between while talking about his Guru ji as if to sample the moment once again before letting it go...everything that he spoke about, the sheer intelligence of the conversation appealed to me. i could give that basic course a shot. all that i did not understand which no one has yet been able to explain to me is the mann and where is it situated, when does it come into action, when do yo

The importance of getting a decent education had dawned on me not very early in life. I should not be saying this because I do not consider myself any different or special or blessed in a special way from the rest of the human species. That one notion broke long time back when someone explained the concept of deja vu to me, else I would have gone on to believe in my special powers. Well too many Naagraj and Pahntom contributed to the notion. Getting back to education, ah, I realised the importance of being educated when I stepped out of my hometown into the big world of larger cities; where there were people whom I did not know. The only thing that I ever knew since I embarked upon mission 'live life' was that I wanted to be heard. I wanted my opinion to be known. I realised that nobody would hear me if I did not learn the language of the big world. The journey was of course eventful. I educated myself. I taught myself to speak smart and work smart (or so I thought until I emb

they bring you immense pleasure. fond memories. i always keep store all the mails that my sister posts me. they are the ones that freshen up my days. they are full of her life that I miss so much of. they are generally about her college, cultural fests, crushes, clothes and even our parents. there is a bunch that is full of advice on how to handle my four-burner gas efficiently to dealing with my married status. there are some other mails from my double maa. Gogu maamaa's mails are puns in prose. my fav is the one that he sent me couple of days before i was to get my first salary ever. he wrote Hope this finds you as thick( FAT) as you were when you last fell on me and broke my crown and you came tumbling after. Tomorrow is the greatest day in your life when you will receive your first pay RACKET. “ Maan ; teri beti ki mehnat ki pehli kamai .”Anyway the idea is to give you a fair idea as to what to do with with the the HOT MILLIONS you will now on be making month after month. Beta

I am absolutely impressed with myself these days. And it just not ends with my culinary skills, that rather is the starting point. Ok so what all else is there on my list of being impressed about a. I love the way my quarter has turned into home b. I have got Sachin into the habit of not hanging clothes behind doors..well almost c. Have got him to put his shoes back in the cupboard and socks in the wash basket d. I own a Hidesign bag worth big bucks without having pestered him e. The haircut- I finally chopped off the tresses on which I had spent bottles of hair oil, shampoo and conditioner f. I have also thrown away all the white, ancient kurtas- courtsey my sis. To begin with I was not keen on throwing away old stuff. My reason- nostalgia. My sister's- a previous birth link with some kabadi g. I can listen to all the cribbing around me with a little extra dose of patience I wanted to take the list till J but to begin with itna hi kaafi hai. Now about things on my to-do list a. ma

mere sapnon main aa ke apna mujhko bana ke mujh pe tu kar ehsaan ...but if you want a favour only then why not ask her to walk into your life rather than just dreams..... today i realised that all my cribbing about how bad my univ days were was part of a crib fest and nothing more. the realisation came just like that..while we were having lunch awwwwwwwwmummmmmmmyyyyyy i wanna go home...i waannaa go home..i wanna learn to drive......i wanna have babies...wanna loose weight overnight.......wanna pen a book.....wanna buy a diamond necklace for mommy